13.9.14

THE EAGLES IN 1975

In April of 1975 I
was flown to LA courtesy of Irving Azoff, the manager of the Eagles, Steely
Dan, Minnie Riperton and REO Speedwagon to do interviews with all four acts. In
the event Steely Dan pulled out, but I can distinctly remember being driven up
one of those canyons that separate Hollywood from Sherman Oaks to a sprawling
house where the Eagles, or at least some of them, lived. The big living room
was littered with acoustic guitars, Martins and Gibsons, and a succession of
spectacularly beautiful girls in very tight jeans and halter tops wandered in
and out distributing cups of coffee and nibbles. I never did figure out if they
were the girlfriends of the group or had been sent there by a catering company. This was the first of two encounters I
had with the Eagles, neither of them particularly friendly. They were one of
those groups that distrusted the press, probably the result of early critical
barbs that suggested they’d taken a dollop of The Byrds, a dollop of The Flying
Burrito Brothers and a dollop of CSN&Y, mixed it all up with plenty of
sugar and baked a cake with packaging designed by Wells Fargo. There’s an
element of a truth in that: the Eagles made country rock commercial, massively
so, but they didn’t invent it, just scooped up the rewards.

HOLLYWOOD: On a clear day Glenn Frey can see
from his living room right out to sea, right across the Pacific to Catalina,
the island off the coast of Southern California. On a not so clear day, he can
see layers of orange smog, the product of the internal combustion engine, which
is God in this part of America.

Today
is clear and the view is quite breathtaking. Certainly conducive to writing
those typical Los Angeles soft rock melodies with which the Eagles have become
synonymous.

It
doesn’t take a fortune teller to predict that 1975 is going to be the big year
for the Eagles. They’ve been digging in the heels of their cowboy boots for
three years now, steadily building a reputation in the wake of The Byrds,
waiting for the breakthrough that their third album, On The Border, has
seemingly now brought about. Although it’s easing down the charts right now,
it’s established the band as a force to be reckoned with.

“On
The Borderwas the
best-sounding record we ever made, but that’s also experience,” says Frey.
“We’re starting to learn how to become recording artists, which is a little
different from learning how to be a member of a band or how to become a
singer/songwriter.

“There’re
definitely things we’ve learned slowly over a couple of years of making
records. I know when we madeDesperadoswe were very conscious of having a
group identity running through the songs and that was something we learned out
of doing the first album.

“After
doing that one when we went in to doOn
The Borderwe tried to bring
in the best elements from both the albums. That probably had something to do
with it, but I think it was a better album anyway. I think we just progressed
and played with a little more confidence. But mainly I think it’s that we
stayed together.”

Another factor which Frey credits as being
important to the group’s recent success is the introduction of Don Felder on
slide guitar. Felder, says Frey, put extra punch into the Eagles’ live show
with the added result that they picked up more followers. “I believe in selling
records on the road, and I believe that if you work hard and have a good album
out, it will sell.

“Since
we got Felder in the band we’ve had a much better second half, the rock and
roll half, in our shows. The other part, the vocal harmony softer part, was
always real good, but Felder nails down the harder stuff.

“He’s
like Duane Allman: he drives the band on certain songs. Some slide players,
myself included, just slide along with the song but when Felder plays slide he
drives the band and the whole thing revolves around him. So the year that we
promotedOn The Borderwe had a much better show together.”

Desperadoswas a concept album in as much as many of the tunes
dealt with the old West. It seemed curious, I remarked, that a band would
travel to England from America to make that kind of record.

“Well,”
mused Glenn. “I guess you’re right, but Clint Eastwood made all those cowboy
movies of his in Italy. Some of the best Western movies have been made in
Europe. You get a whole new perspective working in England.

“All
of a sudden you’re a foreigner, and it put us and LA and everything into
perspective. Now I like staying here although we tried going to Miami for part
of this new album. We got some stuff accomplished there but not nearly as much
as we did recording here.”

Another
factor which possibly aided the success of the last album was their decision to
tour with some of the material before it was put down on tape. Thus not only
were audiences already familiar with the tracks, but the band had an
opportunity to work on them before they reached the studio.

“I
think we did about five songs on a college tour,” said Glenn. “We were out
there testing them, mixing them in with the better known songs. I think it’s
good to do it that way sometimes because it forces you to make a presentation
immediately.

“It
forces you to give a rendering immediately so vocal parts get simplified, and
backing parts and guitar parts get honed down to what you can do best to
present the song. By the time we get to the studio there’s a whole basic sketch
already done.

“With
this next album we haven’t done that, but again this album so far is nothing
but our own songs. On the others we usually included a song by another writer
or called in a friend like Jackson (Browne) or John David (Souther) to help on
a track. We may do that in the next two weeks, though.

“This
is maybe a reason why it’s taking longer to make than other albums, but another
reason is that Don Henley and I are trying to change the traditional symbolic
rock and roll lyrics that most people use on albums.

“The
songs have been finished for a while but we’ve sat around thinking whether we
ought to change them. All we have to do now is to go in and sing the parts, and
that’s when it’ll begin to sound like an Eagles record. Whenever I hear backing
tracks, I can’t think of it being the Eagles at all, a long way from ‘Peaceful
Easy Feeling’.”

Last
summer the Eagles backed Neil Young at an Indian benefit concert near San
Francisco, an experience which may be repeated this year, and one which Frey
recollects with more than a little pride.

“The
guy that put it together was our art director, and he knows the native
California Indians and he approached Neil Young who said he’d do it. He didn’t
commit himself until three or four days before the concert, though, because he
didn’t want it to be advertised.

“We
had a great jam on ‘Cowgirl In The Sand’ with me and Felder and Neil trading
solos for about 12 minutes. We hope to make it an annual event as we’re doing
another one this May. I’m into doing things for them because I figure we’re
living on their land even if I don’t have one iota of guilt about it.

“The
Indians knew how to live here properly and a lot of people are starting to
think this way and realise their Old West consciousness. I’m into the western
civilisation mysticism. Over here people are always turning to the east, but I
figure it’s all right here if we want to look for it.

“I’m
sure some of this Indian and Mexican influence was with us when we were doingDesperados,
as we had a great time doing the little links between songs, the banjo and
traditional things. I would like to do another concept album, though I’m not
sure what the premise would be.”

Frey’s
song, ‘Best Of My Love’, undoubtedly gaveOn
The Bordersales a boost. It
was, he says, an attempt to work off a guitar tuning that Joni Mitchell had
demonstrated. “Actually, I got into a totally different tuning and that’s how
the song ended up.

“I
had a little help from John David Souther who worked on the bridge and rang me
up from LA when I was in England to play it over the phone. We actually worked
on it over the phone until he came to England to see us. ‘Cry Like A Lover’
came about the same way, working on the phone over all that distance.”

Collaboration with other LA musicians is a
way of life in California, as can usually be detected by reading album credits
as well as noticing various similarities in the actual music.

“On
songwriting, I do it all the time,” admits Frey. “If I get something I can’t
finish by myself it’s always good to take it to someone else. We collaborate
among ourselves, but Souther helps us out sometimes.

“It’s
not so much calling up for help in an emergency as just calling and suggesting
we spend an evening writing together and picking up on fragments. The funny
thing that we find with the guys in the Eagles and Souther and Jackson is how
much we think alike. Whenever anyone plays something, we tend to pick on it
right away.”

This
summer the Eagles are making their first trip to England in over 18 months.
They’re tentatively scheduled to appear with Elton John at Wembley Stadium on
June 21 along with stablemate Joe Walsh.

“What
I like about playing in England,” said Frey as we drew to a close, “is the
attentiveness of the audience. In America we tend to play to very boisterous
crowds, but in England they sit and listen and I just thrive on that.

“We
found when we played our first ever gigs in England that being American helped
us. Being an American unknown in America is a drag, but being an American
unknown in England is cool. We found we had a certain amount of Western
charisma. I didn’t realise it until people started looking at my cowboy boots
and asking where I got them.”